Lifestyle | Fitness Update

 

It's been about a month since I blogged about my journey into getting fit and healthy and I thought it was time for an update, especially since I said these would be bi-weekly! The idea of these posts are not only for me to keep myself motivated and updated with my own progress but I'm hoping they may be of interest to any of you readers who might be thinking about getting fitter and healthier too. I'm quite keen to share what's been happening over the last month so keep reading if you'd like to find out!

My Workouts

For the last month, I have been working out at least 3 days every week apart from one week where I only completed two workouts. Most weeks I have completed all four, but due to work and a little bit of laziness I had skipped a couple. For every workout so far I've been using FitnessBlender.com's free workouts on YouTube because I find them really easy to access, follow and being free it suits me best right now. What I love about FitnessBlender.com is that the workouts Kellie does on there have both a high impact and low impact option just in case you're not quite ready for high impact or vice versa if you need to push yourself. I also love that she talks you through each exercise and does them with you. It's a great website and I can't get enough of it.

I've been alternating between the upper body and lower body workouts as well as at least one cardio workout per week. The videos I've been watching are between 30-45 minutes long and most of the ones I've been using don't require the use of any equipment. If I've been feeling that I need to push myself further, I have used 2kg weights too. I am only a beginner so please don't judge the low weight!

 

My Eating Habits

My eating habits have not been brilliant but they've not been awful too. I've not been eating my best with cheeky sugary snacks here and there but I've been doing my best to be conscious about what I eat. It's hard to find healthy options though and this is the part I find the most difficult. I've started by successfully removing the option of sugar in my tea and am now drinking tea without sugar. I've also made a conscious effort to drink more water and ensure I am taking my vitamin tablets too. Even though adapting my eating habits has been hard and I haven't made much progress here, I feel like I've made a lot for someone who's used to eating sweet treats everyday and grazing often.

I've been also drinking Diet Whey Protein Shakes in Strawberry Shortcake flavour from MyProtein.com half an hour after a workout to support the repairing of muscles and ease any aches and pains I might have later on.

 

Progress & Measurments

In terms of progress I have definitely noticed in terms of strength and endurance that I feel much stronger. In general but especially in my arms and legs. I seem to be picking up heavier things a lot easier and being able to last a little longer in my workouts now too. As well as that I feel my cardio has got a lot better as I don't puff out at all when I go for walks with the dogs at the weekends. John and I play a lot of Frisbee with Dodger too and that doesn't puff me out as quickly as it used to but I do find it tires me out being so early in the morning! I'm just no ready, haha!

 

As for physical progress I can definitely see muscle tone in my arms that didn't exist before as well as less wobble in my triceps which is good news! I had a bit of a weak muscle thing going on but I'm much happier with how my arms are looking. I'm not looking for the muscly look at all but I do want to look stronger and feel stronger in my arms. Else where I don't think I've noticed much of a difference as much as I have with my arm tone. I did, although, measure the widest part of my tummy area and find that I'd lost a whole inch off in 4 weeks. This made me happy because the proof is in the measurement really. I'm not ready to share what that measurement is yet but I'm hoping it'll be yet another inch smaller by this time next month!

 

What's Next?

Next I would like to up the ante with my workouts and work on getting some longer workout sessions in or at least add in a run with a half hour workout. I think I need to get up to that hour now before moving onto making those workouts harder. I find it hard to get that 45 minutes in but I'm okay with 30 now so I think upping the time spent working out is first on my list.
Watching Kellie from FitnessBlender's videos I've learnt that strength training alongside cardio is great to keep metabolisms working and sustaining a high metabolism too. To lose the unwanted fat and slim down to that hour-glass figure I'm looking for, this is what I need to do so I also need to make sure I keep up with the weights as well as hitting out some hard cardio!

Now I've taken all the sugar out of my tea I want to take away the sugary snacks next and replace it with my shakes or with water as you should! (I drink my shakes with that new BOB skimmed milk that tastes like semi-skimmed.  It makes the shakes taste like real milkshakes but without all the fat of semi-skimmed milk!) I feel the shakes will help me best to avoid eating snacks and grazing at the weekend but water should be my go to during the week at work. I'm keen to get better at the food part of this too because not only have I got some bad food habits but it's important to get my metabolism working to get rid of that unwanted fat. Keeping up with my old sugar intake isn't going to support this.

So, that's how I've been getting on with my fitness so far. A month in and I think I'm doing quite well for a fitness n00b. I'm hoping to get into those bi-weekly updates so hopefully in a couple of weeks I can update you with some more good news on how I've been getting on.
If you've got any tips or great websites you'd recommend to help I'd love it if you shared them in the comments or send them to me on Twitter @CatttSays. Don't be shy!

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